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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

I thought I would get a little creative today and add some pizzazz to the photos.

What do you think?

My cat, Mylo, wanted to help. But really I think he was just looking for treats.

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.”
—Neil Gaiman

Monday, December 30, 2013

Yes. Another 90's nostalgia post. As we approach a new year, sometimes you can't help but look back.

With all of the 90's nostalgia memes, jokes and "I remember when..." pictures out there, why should I do yet another post, bringing up old memories and the lack of technology from the 90's?

Because the 90's were awesome. That's why.

Disclosure: Some of the items brought up in this post, may not have originated from the 90's (troll dolls, for example, which actually started in the 60's.) However, as a 90's kid, these are some of the things I remember seeing.

Ok, so let's start with the nail art.

Bam! If this manicure doesn't scream 90's, I don't know what does. It's super bright, maybe a little obnoxious and a bit mis-matched...Much like 90's style, if this were an outfit, we aren't quite sure if all of the elements really go together, but boy, does it sure look like fun!

Although I must confess, this manicure was not planned or intended to be a giant 90's nostalgia post. This all started with a recently purchased glitter polish from an indie brand called Starrily that I had been dying to try it out.

Isn't it pretty? So I grabbed a blue and a pink I thought would compliment the glitters nicely and grabbed one of the gold toned Michael Khors polishes I received for Christmas. And this is what I came up with.

But first can we talk about how fabulous the glitter topcoat looks? I love this glitter polish because the glitter bits are huge, both, shiny and matte, and overall, make this topcoat really unique. However, my only issue with this polish (that really happens with all glitter polishes) is that with each coat, you always pick up more clear polish than glitter, resulting in super thick coats, bubbles, and not enough glitter. To get the glitter positioned as I did here, I had to finagle with the brush and individual pieces of glitter, brushing the extra clear coat off of my brush and trying to dab on individual pieces. Still, my coat was a little thicker than I would have liked, which is why you can see some bubbling.

After doing some research online, I found the technique I should have used. Get ready to have your mind blown.The easiest way to apply glitter without all the extra clear coat is to use a make up sponge. After you paint your two base coats, let it dry completely. Then, paint your makeup sponge with the glitter topcoat you want to use. Wait 5 second's or so, so the sponge can soak up some of the clear polish. Then, simply dab the glitter onto your nail and repeat the process as needed until you have the glitter coverage you want.
It's so simple, its ridiculous.

Oh and if anyone is interested, I used the splatter technique for my pointer finger. After painting my base coat. I stuck a straw in a few drops of blue polish and blew through the clean end onto my nail creating splatter patterns. I added some loose glitter purchased from the born pretty store and bam! Instant 90's graffiti nail art. Doesn't this look like something Lisa Frank might wear?

But the best part of this manicure? Telling my boyfriend to help me rummage through the house in search of 90's memorabilia.

We went on a 90's treasure hunt and this is what we found....

Beanie Babies began production in 1993 and soon gained popularity. I had friends who collected ridiculous amount of these toys, convinced that if they kept the tags on and held onto them for long enough, they would be millionaires. But I was one of those kids who took the tags off. Because I am a rebel.

VHS tapes...I know, I know, I'm dating myself. Other wise known as Video Home System, these gained popularity in the 80's and were the objects we used to rent from our local library for sleep overs...only to press play and discover, dum dum dummm...the last a**hole didn't rewind the tape. Curses.

Mixed Tapes - So I babysit a 13 year old, born in 2000 (Isn't that weird???? 2000 feels like it was yesterday). I was telling her that when I was a kid, I had the sound track to Disney's Aladdin on cassette tape. Then she asked me what a cassette tape was.

Troll Dolls - These little creepers began in the 60's, but remained in popularity so by the 90's, we were still seeing commercials about them. I don't know that much about them...except that they are creepy.

And now, for my final picture, I present....a smorgasbord of 90's stuff.

So what do I remember about the 90's? Seeing tons of toy commercials and thinking that when I was an adult and got a job, I was going to buy all of the toys and candy I ever wanted. Now that I'm 23, I'm like haha, I pay rent now, never mind.

What else do I remember? Waking up early Saturday morning to watch Recess, watching The Wonder Years, Marvin's Magic Drawing Board, Gel Pens (for body art, not for drawing), Spice Girls, All That, Are you Afraid of the Dark?, Sock em Boppers, Lisa Frank, Bubble Yum Tape, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Spirograph, Lite Brite, Figure it Out, Lego's, Creepy Crawlers, Pokemon, Operation, Candy Land, Trouble, Clarissa Explains it All, Y2K, Amanda Bynes (before she went crazy), Cousin Skeeter, Saved by the Bell, Pinky and the Brain, and Goosebumps. And does anyone remember the slime monster from Ghost Writer? I'm still scared of that thing!

Also, my boyfriend just sang the entire jingle to Sock em Bopper's.

What do you remember? Leave me a comment with three of your favorite things from the 90's!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Hi! Did everyone have a good Christmas? Did you indulge in Christmas ham, Christmas cookies and egg nog? Did you watch Home Alone 1 & 2? I know I did. What Christmas is complete without watching Kevin McCallister paint a sneer on his face and say, "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal". Love that movie.The one thing I didn't get for Christmas? Snow!But first, did you get anything fun for Christmas? Besides the usual (money, cards, clothes) I did get some nail related goodies! A friend bought me two spectacular Michael Khors nail polishes (retailing at $18 each...yowza!) and my boyfriend got me a bundle monster nail plate organizer. So now instead of rummaging through a make-up bag for the plates I want to use, I can now conveniently flip through my nail plate binder and clearly see all the images on my plates. I have to say, once I organized all of my plates, I did get a little turned on. Yayy for organization!

What else did I get? Well a few days after Christmas, I took a trip to my favorite nail polish supply store, located in Queens.

It's beautiful isn't it? It's really more of a warehouse. What I love about this place is they sell to individuals. Some beauty stores only sell their products in bulk and also, will only sell to you if you are a licensed salon owner. But not this place!

So what inspired this trip? Well, if you go back a few posts, you'll see that I did a post about my boyfriend's group, Quartet Plus 1.
Long story short, I bet him that using my blog, I could get his group
more attention. In the end, he promised me that for every three likes he
received on the Quartet Plus 1 face book page, he would buy me one bottle of nail polish. His page started out with 61 likes and at the end of our bet

- pause for draumatic effect -

he had 89! You know what that means! 9 shiny new bottles for me.

The
irony of it all? My boyfriend now has more facebook likes than I do! So
if you like my designs, help me reach 100 likes by New Year's Eve! You
can like my page here. <3.

Anyway,
I'm splitting up my winnings so some of the polishes will be polishes
that have been on my wish list, some will be indies, and some will be
polishes that catch my eye in stores. So far, these are the 4 hubby
bought me during our trip. (Side Note: The blue and gold Essie's are
really good for stamping.) I'll show you my final haul when everything
is purchased!

So the excursion was a pleasant after Christmas trip...but as I said, the one thing I wanted for Christmas but never seem to get is (drum roll)...Snow!

So to replace the snow I did not get this Christmas, I wore this mani as a prayer to the snow Gods. I used Blue Slate, a lovely blue/gray creme which I received in my monthly Julep Maven subscription. Over it, I stamped some snowflake patterns and finally, added some glitter. The glitter is also from Julep and really helps to recreate that I'm-walking-in-a-snow-storm-and-I-can't-see, feeling!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

This post is for those of you who appreciate nail art, rhinestones, nail charms, and own almost every single nail polish color known to man. This mani represents my own personal Christmas list. Since the writing might be difficult to read, I wanted to take some time to explain one of the things I would like this year.

If you look closely at my Christmas list, you'll see that it reads...

To everyone and in celebration of every holiday,

I wish you all to have a glitter filled holiday season, with love, sparkle, good food, great friends and of course, more nail polish.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Can you believe Christmas is already next week? It seems like just yesterday I started Christmas shopping…pushing old ladies out of the way to get to the last box of candy canes and wondering how unethical it would be to regift a bad Christmas sweater I received last year…

JK. But I really do love the craziness of the holiday season. I’ve always said there is absolutely nothing like Christmas in New York. The tree at Rockefeller center (which I am actually going to see later this evening), the windows at Macy’s, the ice skating and little holiday shops…. Throw in some Christmas music, the decorations and the lights…the excitement of trying to find that perfect gift…it gets me every time.

When I see all of those decorations and see everyone shopping, it feels like just right now, just for this one moment…everything is okay. Everyone seems a little less grumpy, and bit more happy, and even a bit more giving.

But I know that’s just me being optimistic. So how will I be spending the upcoming holiday? Watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and The Muppet Christmas Carol, consuming way too much hot chocolate, cuddling with the Mr., and lounging around in my Grinch Who Stole Christmas onesie (no, you are not allowed to judge me). And of course, doing my nails.

Disclosure: No old ladies were harmed in the making of this holiday manicure.

So this is my version of candy cane nails! For this look, I first painted my nails using one coat of Sally Hansen’s Quick Brick which is a lovely dark red shimmery polish. Over Quick Brick I did one coat of Milani’s Ruby Jewels. Ruby Jewels is a jelly polish with a red tinted base filled with tiny red sparkles. This color is completely opaque with three coats, but to avoid having multiple layers of polish I decided to use one coat of Quick Brick and one coat of Ruby Jewels. That way, my nail color looks completely opaque and not too jelly like.

Once my two coats of polish completely dried, I took several pieces of scotch tape and cute them length wise. I then arranged the tape on my nails where I wanted the red stripes to show through. Finally, I did one coat of Celeb City, and as soon as I finished painting the coat, I quickly removed the tape in one pull, leaving me with those nice straight lines.

Then I added some silver sparkles (platinum record) and stamped on a bow and tada! Instant Christmas.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

It's me again! Posting twice in one week. Woot! Thankfully, now that I am on winter break from school, I have a bit more time for posting. So here I go!

So today's post is really mushy, a bit selfish, but over all, kind of cute. I have decided to dedicate this post to my boyfriend of 5 years. I know, super gross.

The Mushy Part

So I think I have mentioned a bit about him before but anyway, he's a super hot trumpet player. We met while I was in high school (OMG I'm so old now) and despite my annoying habits, inability to cook, and refusal to ride the Coney Island Cyclone with him (that thing is like a zillion years old), we have been together ever since.

We are "that couple" amongst our group of friends who has been together so long, we are now called old and married. One of my friends once told me that if we ever broke up, she would stop believing in love. No pressure. Some of his friends even call me "the Mrs."....It's gotten kind of crazy. He always gives me the last bite of desert, lets me pick out what movie we are watching, and eats the crust of my pizza (I hate crust!). If that's not true love, I don't know what is.

Anyway, earlier this year, my boyfriend started a brass quintet called Quartet Plus 1. This group is a New York based brass quintet that plays a wide variety of music, from jazz to oldies to current favorites, but specializing in classical music.

(mine is the cutie in the middle)

Photo by Cassandra Jolicoeur of On Wednesdays, We Wear Polish

Photo by Cassandra Jolicoeur of On Wednesdays, We Wear Polish

Over the past few weeks, my boyfriend has been putting together a charity concert to help raise money for the Philippines to go to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. This Wednesday, Quartet Plus 1, will be playing at St. Marks Church on the lower east side of Manhattan. Come out to hear some great music if you are in the Manhattan area!

Poster designed by Jose Habana (Jose.habana@gmail.com)

So for the upcoming concert, I decided to do a music themed manicure. What do you think?

I am really happy with how this one turned out. Definitely super funky. Except for my ashy hands, which I just noticed in these pictures. haha pardon my ashy winter skin.

***The Selfish Part***

So when I told my boyfriend I was planning to do this post, I told him that my blog was getting a little more popular and that maybe it would get his group some attention. He thought that I was just being cute. And I love a good challenge. Basically, I ended up betting him that my post could increase his face book page likes. In the end, we came up with this: He promised me that for every three likes he gets on the Quartet Plus 1 face book page, he will buy me one bottle of nail polish. His page currently has 61 likes, so for every three likes he gets after that, I get me some colorful goodies.

That means I DESPERATELY need your help!

Take a look around the Quartet Plus 1 website. If you click on media, you can hear some samples of their music. If you like what you hear, like the Quartet Plus 1 face book page and help me get more nail polish! Yayy

Now onto the nail polish!

I wanted a funky feel for this mani so I used white, dark gunmetal gray, and a gunmetal gray glitter, for my bases. My favorite is definitely my middle finger which has Milani Silver dazzle as the base. This color has a clear base absolutely packed with tiny gun metal gray glitters. As you can see, with two coats, this lovely glitter polish is completely opaque.

Once my bases were all dry I used my newly purchased Moyou plates which I discussed in a previous post. These plates are from their Roxy Collection. Details are at the end of the post. Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

I'm baaaackkkkk! So I have to apologize for being a bit behind on posting but the past week has been a little crazy. Between writing final papers for school, Christmas shopping, and work, I have hardly had a chance to sit down! Luckily, I have had some time to do my nails : )

So I am pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but I am a HUGE stamping fan. Now, don't get me wrong. I love hand painted designs and have recently been practicing my own free hand art (I definitely need to work on it lol) But there is something about a perfectly crisp stamped nail design that awes me every single time.

So in honor of my love of stamping and the holiday season, today I am showing off my Christmas sweater mani!

Ta da! How's that for Christmas spirit? For the base of this mani, I used Revlon's rainforest, a beautiful dark emerald green with tiny green sparkles. Stamped over rainforest, I used a newly purchased Moyou London stamping plate with a Christmas sweater design. I recently discovered this company from some fellow bloggers and fell in love with these plates instantly.

Moyou London has some really original designs and comes out with with new plates pretty regularly. They even have some entire image designs you can use to stamp parts of scenes on your nails.

I absolutely love this company. The plates are easy to use and even come in cute packaging. I may have purchased one or two plates... or 5...or 9, OK I purchased 9. But anyway, I think these plates are awesome and I highly recommend them. They make the individual full nail designs (like the pattern I used) in two sizes, either regular (1.2cm X 1.5cm) or XL (2cm X 1.5cm). I have pretty long nails and a wide nail bed so I ordered the XL plates which I used for this mani.

For this design, I first did two coats of rainforest. After this dried, I stamped the sweater pattern on my pinkie, middle, pointer and thumb. For my ringer finger, while my base was still wet, I sprinkled on some white glitter to create the illusion of snow. Once my base coat dried with the glitter in it, I did one clear top coat. Over the clear topcoat I stamped a single snowflake.

So that's it for today! Just wanted to spread some Christmas cheer : ) Stay tuned for more Christmas designs!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Happy December 1st! For everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope you survived your relatives, copious amounts of turkey, and unhealthy quantities of pumpkin pie. I feel like I am going to be eating leftover's until Christmas.

And no, you are not allowed to judge me even though it's only 2PM (New York time) and I am already on my second slice of pumpkin pie.

Anyway.

Just a quickie nail post today to share some awesome nail polish deals for Cyber Monday. I feel like we usually don't get deals this good, but this year, many businesses are offering between 20%-40% off, along with sales that will stretch from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. This list was put together by Refined and Polished and lists over 20 stores offering crazy discounts on nail stuff.

Small warning...some of the deals have already expired so pay attention to the details. For example, one Australian company is offering 40% off their polishes expiring on December 1st at midnight. I was ecstatic until I tried to check out and my coupon code didn't work. After several minutes of tantrums, my boyfriend suggested that it's probably because it's already December 2nd in Australia (close to 6AM). Damn New York time. But there are still some great bargains out there! So say thank you to Refined and Polished for being awesome and check out the sale list. Some of my favorite brands are Girly Bits, Pretty Serious, and Dollish Polish. Merry Christmas to me!

Oh and before I forget, here is some nail art! Just because.

The base for this manicure is a lovely pale gray which I purchased from one of my favorite indie sellers, LynbDesigns, who can be found on Etsy. I think she is actually having a sale this weekend too.

I was particularly proud of my thumb, which I think came out cool. I used some of the individual larger sparkles from the Color Club polish and placed them individually on my thumb nail. And the stripes on my ring finger and thumb were done free hand using a small nail striper.